Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot.

“For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry,” the former Seinfeld co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's Late Show in New York.

“I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this,” Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself. A clip from the show played on CBS before Late Show aired Monday night.

Richards described himself as going into “a rage” over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Richards responded to the black hecklers with repeated use of the “n word” and profanities.

Jerry Seinfeld, who had issued a statement saying he was “sick over this horrible, horrible mistake” and calling it offensive, was scheduled as a Letterman guest Monday. He encouraged Richards to make a satellite appearance to talk about the incident, a CBS publicist said.

Richards, 57, who played Seinfeld's eccentric neighbour Kramer on the hit 1989-98 sitcom and whose major credit since was a failed 2000 comedy, hadn't spoken publicly about his remarks before the Late Show.

Richards deserved the chance to apologize, Seinfeld said on the Late Show. Seinfeld added: “He's someone that I love, and I know how shattered he is about” the incident.
At one point, however, Richards expressed second thoughts about appearing on the Late Show when his use of the term “Afro-American” proved funny to some audience members.
“I'm hearing your audience laugh, and I'm not even sure that this is where I should be addressing the situation,” he said in a tape of his appearance shown by CBS to reporters.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory on Friday during Richards' performance, said he was shocked.
“Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining,” Rodriguez told CNN. “Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations.”

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two club-goers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. A videotape of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: “Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a [expletive] fork up your ass.”
He then paced across the stage taunting the men for
interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

“You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now [expletive]. Throw his ass out. He's a nigger!” Richards shouted before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.
Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience, “It shocks you, it shocks you” and refers to “what lays buried.”

While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping “Oh my God” and people respond with “ooh” after Richards uses the n-word.
Eventually someone calls out: “It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. Seinfeld, that's it.”